“The quest to right the ship at the New York Philharmonic moved forward this week when the orchestra and its players reached a new three-year contract at a critical moment of reinvention,” writes Michael Cooper in Friday’s (3/2) New York Times. The contract “was approved on Thursday…. Under the agreement the musicians will receive a 4.5 percent increase in wages over the next three years, raising the base salary at the orchestra to $153,504 a year from $146,796; musicians will pay more for health insurance.… Since her arrival [President and Chief Executive Officer Deborah Borda] has helped to extricate the orchestra from a costly, disruptive plan to renovate its Lincoln Center home and raised $50 million to end its string of deficits and give it the resources to welcome a new music director, Jaap van Zweden, who will assume the role next season…. The orchestra’s last labor deal, in 2013, increased waged by 6.5 percent over four years. The orchestra has already announced plans to strengthen its ties with New Yorkers next season, including by offering $5 tickets to short introductory concerts conducted by Mr. van Zweden to teachers and others who work in public service.”
Posted March 5, 2018
